I just switched from a Curve 8330 to a Curve 9350. I have 3 contacts in my phone that have a different ringer than all the rest. With my new phone, when you personalize a ringtone it also requires you to personalize a sound for "messages" for that same contact. I like to have ALL of my emails and ALL of my texts come in each with their own certain sound, regardless of who it is from. With this "new system" if I have one contact (Peter) that texts me and then sends me an email, both messages from Peter make the same sound. Is there a way to not designate a different "message sound" for a contact and only a ringtone for their phone calls?

No. There is not. For Contact Alerts, Messages includes SMS and Email. You will get the same sound.

Otherwise, just set them to your default sound for SMS and for Email and you will get that sound.

You mean, the only way to get a personalized ringtone is to also have that contact have a personalized message notifier? Because there is no option in the contact's personalized message notifier that says "use active profile"...wish there was because that would fix the issue.